Evaluación conjunta de la población de la anchoa del Mar Adriático septentrional y central: comparación entre dos métodos de dinámica poblacional

Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus, L.) is one of the most important commercial species of the northern and central Adriatic Sea, as well as one of the most productive fisheries in the whole Mediterranean. In the Adriatic Sea the stock of anchovy is shared between Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. A joint stock assessment was carried out using catch data from all the fleets for the time interval 1975-2009. Analyses were performed using estimates of natural mortality at age obtained by means of two different methods and two population dynamics methods based on the analysis of catch-at-age data: Laurec-Sheperd virtual population analysis (VPA) and integrated catch-at-age (ICA), both tuned to acoustic estimates of abundance. Gislason’s estimates for natural mortality appeared to be more realistic and were thus preferred for short-lived species. The general trend of biomass and fishing mortality is similar for the two models, highlighting the major collapse of the stock in 1987. Nevertheless, ICA has enough flexibility to combine all the data available without adding too much complexity in comparison with a VPA approach and seems to perform better in terms of the spawning stock biomass/recruitment relationship and diagnostics (i.e. the retrospective pattern). For the stock status, the exploitation rate from ICA is higher than the suggested threshold of 0.4 proposed by Patterson for small pelagic species.La anchoa (Engraulis encrasicolus, L.) es una de las especies comerciales más importantes del mar Adriático central y septentrional, a la vez que es una de las actividades pesqueras más productivas en todo el Mediterráneo. La población de anchoa en el mar Adriático es compartida por Croacia, Italia y Eslovenia: una evaluación conjunta de la población fue realizada usando los datos de captura de todas las flotas para el periodo 1975-2009. Se efectuaron análisis usando estimaciones de la mortalidad natural por edad obtenidos mediante dos métodos diferentes y dos métodos de dinámica poblacional basados en el análisis de datos de captura por edad: Análisis de Población Virtual (VPA) de Laurec-Sheperd y Análisis de Captura Integrada por Edad (ICA), ambos acordados en las estimaciones acústicas de la abundancia. Las estimaciones de mortalidad natural de Gislason aparentaban ser más realísticas y por lo tanto daba preferencia a especies de vida corta. La tendencia general de la biomasa y de la mortalidad por pesca es similar en los dos modelos, destacando la fuerte disminución de la población en 1987. Sin embargo, ICA permite una flexibilidad suficiente para combinar todos los datos disponibles sin agregar excesivas complejidades con respecto al enfoque VPA y aparenta un mejor desempeño en términos de relación de SSB-R y en términos of diagnósticos (por ejemplo: el patrón retrospectivo). En relación al estado de la población, la tasa de explotación del ICA es más alta que el umbral sugerido de 0.4 propuesto por Patterson para las especies de pequeños pelágicos

The Saga of the Management of Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea: History, Flaws, Difficulties, and Successes toward the Application of the Common Fisheries Policy in the Mediterranean

In the past 40 years, the fishery in the Mediterranean Sea has seen numerous changes in technology, fleet composition, effort allocation, and management strategies. In this paper, our aim is to summarize the improvements, and highlight the flaws and difficulties that have characterized fisheries management in the Mediterranean Sea in the past decades. We (the authors) advocate the importance of the regionalization of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in the Mediterranean. We focussed on the Adriatic Sea, with two case studies—the fishery for sardine and anchovy, and the fishery for Nephrops. The former is emblematic as it is one of the most valuable and well-studied fisheries in the Mediterranean but it is also an example of a management process that is slowly bearing fruit. Nephrops, on the other hand, has been facing the same destiny as other stocks in the Mediterranean; namely, its peculiar biology, a complex fishery, a poorly tailored data collection and inadequate assessments, have delayed action until very recent times. We use these examples to cover several aspects of Mediterranean fisheries management: (i) a historical overview of the development of these fisheries and their management; (ii) an overview of the main players involved in the scientific analysis and management process and their current and ideal roles; (iii) the flaws of the current stock assessment system; and (iv) recent developments and potential solutions to comply with the latest reform of the CFP before 2020. We argue that to align Mediterranean management with the CFP and achieve MSY targets, the lack of coordination and definition of roles between the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, the European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries and the Joint Research Centre need to be resolved. There is a need for adequate assessment models and data to answer increasingly complex management questions, as well as regular external review of the stock assessment models to assure their quality. Finally, the need for the implementation of a TAC system as an effective tool for Mediterranean fisheries to achieve sustainability is discussed and advocated

Coupling an oceanographic model to a Fishery Observing System through mixed models: The importance of fronts for anchovy in the Adriatic Sea

Anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, forms the basis of Italian small pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic Sea. The strong dependence of this stock on environmental factors and the consequent high variability makes the dynamics of this species particularly complicated to model. Weekly geo-referenced catch data of anchovy obtained by means of a Fishery Observing System (FOS) from 2005 to 2011 were referred to a 0.2 × 0.2 degree grid (about 20 km2) and associated with the environmental parameters calculated by a Regional Ocean Modelling System, AdriaROMS. Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMM) with and without random effects were used to identify a relationship between abundance in the catch and oceanographic conditions. The outcomes of models with no random effects, with random vessel effects and with the random vessel and random week-of-the-year effects were examined. The GAMM incorporating a random vessel and week-of-the-year effect were selected as the best model on the basis of the Akaike information criteria (AIC). This model indicated that catches (abundance) of anchovy in the Adriatic Sea correlate well with low temperatures, salinity fronts and sea surface height, and allowed the identification of areas where high concentrations of this species are most likely to occur. The results of this study demonstrate that GAMM are a useful tool to combine geo-referenced catch data with oceanographic variables and that the use of a mixed-model approach with spatial and temporal random effects is an effective way to depict the dynamics of marine species

Identification of adult and juvenile Atherina presbyter Cuvier, 1829 in a marine coastal area adjacent to Tagus estuary (NE Atlantic): A molecular tool for an ecological question

A simple PCR-RFLP consisting in the digestion of a fragment of the 12S ribosomal RNA (12SrRNA) with species-specific restriction enzymes (MboII and HinfI) was developed to distinguish northeastern Atlantic species in the genus Atherina. Unambiguous identification of morphologically similar sympatric species is frequently difficult, especially when younger specimens are included in the analysis. Genetic and morphological analysis of a total of 123 atherinids collected near the mouth of the Tagus estuary (west Portugal) confirmed that only Atherina presbyter (sand smelt) adults and juveniles are recurrently using these marine rocky habitats as spawning and nursery grounds, respectively. The importance of applying non-destructive methods is emphasized. In the future, the conditions involved in the transition from marine A. presbyter to estuarine/ riverine A. boyeri should be further evaluated along with the ability of larvae and juveniles to cope with river flow and tidal currents drift.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); FEDER; EMAC-Empresa Municipal de Ambiente de Cascais, E.M., S.Ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Data from: Coupling demographic and genetic variability from archived collections of European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus).

It is well known that temporal fluctuations in small populations deeply influence evolutionary potential. Less well known is whether fluctuations can influence the evolutionary potentials of species with large census sizes. Here, we estimated genetic population parameters from as survey of polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci in archived otoliths from Adriatic European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a fish with large census sizes that supports numerous local fisheries. Stocks have fluctuated greatly over the past few decades, and the Adriatic fishery collapsed in 1987. Our results show a significant reduction of mean genetic parameters as a consequence of the population collapse. In addition, estimates of effective population size (Ne) are much smaller than those expected in a fishes with large population census sizes (Nc). Estimates of Ne indicate low effective population sizes, even before the population collapse. The ratio Ne/Ne ranged between 10−6 and 10−8, indicating a large discrepancy between the anchovy gene pool and population census size. Therefore, anchovy populations may be more vulnerable to fishery effort and environmental change than previously thought

Coupling Demographic and Genetic Variability from Archived Collections of European Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)

It is well known that temporal fluctuations in small populations deeply influence evolutionary potential. Less well known is whether fluctuations can influence the evolutionary potentials of species with large census sizes. Here, we estimated genetic population parameters from as survey of polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci in archived otoliths from Adriatic European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a fish with large census sizes that supports numerous local fisheries. Stocks have fluctuated greatly over the past few decades, and the Adriatic fishery collapsed in 1987. Our results show a significant reduction of mean genetic parameters as a consequence of the population collapse. In addition, estimates of effective population size (Ne) are much smaller than those expected in a fishes with large population census sizes (Nc). Estimates of Ne indicate low effective population sizes, even before the population collapse. The ratio Ne/Ne ranged between 10-6 and 10-8, indicating a large discrepancy between the anchovy gene pool and population census size. Therefore, anchovy populations may be more vulnerable to fishery effort and environmental change than previously thought

Dataset Ruggeri et al. (archived anchovies DNA)

Dataset in spreadsheet format reporting basic information about (microsatellite) genotypes and collection data from an archived DNA study of European anchovy (Engraulis ancrasicolus) in the Adriatic basin

BOTTLESIM simulation.

<p>(<b>a</b>) Trend (solid line) of <i>H</i>_e and (<b>b</b>) <i>N</i>_A simulated values for a population (represented by CH78) experiencing a bottleneck for over 32 generations (years). Red squares represent the observed (<b>a</b>) <i>H</i>_e and (<b>b</b>) <i>N</i>_A values in CH78, CH87, CH94, CH00, and CH10. (<b>c</b>) Trend (solid line) of <i>H</i>_e and (<b>d</b>) <i>N</i>_A simulated values for a population (represented by VI85) that went through a bottleneck for over 25 generations (years). Red squares represent the observed (<b>c</b>) <i>H</i>_e and (<b>d</b>) <i>N</i>_A values in VI85, VI87, VI89, and VI10. Light grey bars are standard errors for simulated values.</p